Dash Menswear pushes Cairo through exclusive arcades  ( May '28,2001, FE)

DASH Menswear Ltd is collaring new brand-building and franchisee development strategies to bolster the presence of its top-end menswear brand Cairo. The garment-maker plans to engage its brand ambassador Rahul Dev for advertising as well as marketing activities for the brand this year. The first television commercial for Cairo brand will break in September this year.

Also, with the sales of trousers and accessories growing under the Cairo brand (it was launched in 1997 as a shirt brand) Dash Menswear has chalked out plans to establish a franchised network of 10 Cairo Arcades in fiscal 2001-02. ‘‘In terms of exclusive outlets, this year we’ll focus on the northern market and add six stores to our new network of four Cairo Arcades in Delhi,’’ says Mr Lalit Agarwal, CEO and partner, Dash Menswear Ltd. ‘‘South and west will be targeted next fiscal.’’ The brand also has presence in multi-brand outlets through 200 active dealers in Delhi, Rajasthan, Punjab, UP and the North-East. Mr Agarwal says that the response to its exclusive outlets has been encouraging.

‘‘The stores we have taken were earlier doing business of Rs 30 lakh a year. But after converting to Cairo Arcade, their sales have grown three to five times,’’ he claims.

Dash Menswear is expecting a retail turnover of Rs 10 crore to come from Cairo Arcades this fiscal. The company — which has in its portfolio premium-and-middle-priced brands Dash, TNG and Regalia; and popular brands Brasstacks and Monopoly — expects to grow by around 35 per cent this year over its retail turnover of Rs 75 crore in fiscal 2001-02. Cairo accounts for 28 per cent of overall turnover (the mid-priced TNG leads with 40 per cent) and the new focus on higher-priced Cairo is expected to drive its growth even faster.

A typical Cairo Arcade is designed as a medium-spaced outlet, over 800 sqft in area, entailing an investment of around Rs 12-15 lakh towards interiors and stocks. The decor will have a mix of white cedar, white lighting, and a surrounding colour of soothing cream to highlight garments.

‘‘A franchisee with a turnover of Rs 60 lakh can break even in a year,’’ says Mr Agarwal. ‘‘In fact, all our stores are expected to gross Rs 1 crore a year.’’ With more than half of its overall advertising budget allocated to the Cairo brand, Dash Menswear is planning to use brand ambassador Rahul Dev for a range of marketing and media activities. The visual merchandising and print campaign, handled by Innovator, is currently being led by the model-turned-actor. ‘‘We’ve already started advertising in mass as well as niche publications like Swagat and Jet Wings, and now we plan to take visual merchandising to multi-brand outlets as well,’’ says Mr Agarwal.

Dash Menswear expects that right focus on the brand will result in sales broadening from shirts, which now accounts for 70 per cent of all Cairo sales, to trousers and accessories. The company has also initiated an exercise to track repeat purchases at its exclusive outlets. As per a recent study in October 2001, the company discovered that 40 per cent of all purchases came from repeat buyers. The company is also in the process of launching a comprehensive portal www.cairoarcade.com.